The Present Flora of Britain. 19 
distribution of these is too peculiar to permit of any 
attempt at explanation in the present state of our know- 
ledge as to the former range of these species. Spiranthes 
Romanzoviana occurs in Cork, and in North America 
and Kamtschatka ; Szsyrinchium angustifolium is found 
in bogs in Galway and Kerry, and also in Arctic and 
Temperate North America ; Eriocaulon septangulare is an 
aquatic plant occurring in Skye and the West of Ireland, 
and also in North America, 
From the above notes it will be seen that Britain shows 
signs of a geographical distribution of plants largely in- 
dependent of that due to climate; or, perhaps we should say, 
not governed by existing climatic conditions. The cause of 
these peculiarities will be best discussed when we have 
examined into the means of dispersal possessed by dif- 
ferent plants ; but it will be as well at once to say that 
the subject is beset with difficulties, and at every turn we 
meet with instances of anomalous distribution, such as 
make a botanist inclined to suggest ‘accidental introduc- 
tion by man’ were it not that many of the species are 
marsh or woodland forms, long established and most un- 
likely to be brought by human agency in any form. Per- 
haps future research may show that many of the outliers 
were once less isolated, and that the present distribution 
is not so unaccountable as it seems. Such has already 
been shown to be the case with many mammals and 
mollusca, which geology proves had once a much wider 
distribution; but the flora of our Later Tertiary deposits 
tas not yet been collected and studied so thoroughly as 
has the fauna. 
